


Cross the Styx

by aki_askw



Category: Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27698591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aki_askw/pseuds/aki_askw
Summary: *This work is tranlated from the original Chinese version（https://archiveofourown.org/works/27698888）. Because of my poor English, there may be some grammatical mistakes and unidiomatic words using.*Ishigami Senku×Asagiri Gen
Relationships: Asagiri Gen/Ishigami Senkuu
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Cross the Styx

**Author's Note:**

> *This work is tranlated from the original Chinese version（https://archiveofourown.org/works/27698888）. Because of my poor English, there may be some grammatical mistakes and unidiomatic words using.  
> *Ishigami Senku×Asagiri Gen

I guess I’ve been dead.  
Ishigami Senkuu quickly realizes.  
In the dark, secluded uncharted zone, the land is barren as if it has just been through a mountain fire, and the smell of death is overwhelming.  
Someone says that one could not remember where he was and what he was doing at the last moment, and how he arrived the present situation. Everything is sudden and jumpy, just like a collage, a movie montage. But he is well aware that in the last fragment of consciousness, he was hit head-on by Stanley’s bullet, and despite the cushion provided by the expansive fluid, the pain overpowered everything, just as moments later, the spilled blood likewise took up the entirety of his vision. He closed his eyes, and then opened them, and here he is.  
He totally understands the causal link, the logical unfolding, and if there is only one missing link from the basement to the wilderness, it is because the boundary between life and death could not easily be physically crossed. There have to be something inexplicable. Yah, he understands.  
In any case it is a place where only the shallow outline of a slope could be seen a short distance away, and where a little wind noise is heard. A reversal of all the locations he has visited before. He stands up and follows an unknown guide towards the moon. There is no one else on the road, and the night is still dark and still. He tries his best to gaze at the moon. The brass disc’s hollows are clearly visible, and the edges have slightly ragged shades, not unlike the world of living. Is the world after death an eternal night in which one is going to be eternally lost?  
Just as he is thinking that, he hears the sound of water.  
Still the same direction, as where the moon is. He goes on for some distance, and a number of silvery fipples appear on the far border of the land, swaying repeatedly in the moonlight---a river. A wooden trestle bridge by the river, against which the boat rests, its stern twine knotted on a wooden stake, and in which sit the ferryman and another traveller.  
Before he could open his mouth, Asagiri Gen waves at him.  
‘Senkuu chan, over here!’  
He also waves his hand and walks over. He has to say there is a bit of consternation in his mind, and he asks, ‘Why are you here too?’  
Gen is greatly puzzled,’Only Senkuu chan is allowed to go first, while I have to work hard to continue living?’  
Ah…...he suddenly gets it. Gen must also have been in a situation where he could no longer turn the tables, see blood and finally cross the border.  
‘……How did you die?’ Senkuu continues to ask.  
‘Well…’ Gen smiles, not like he is talking about this kind of topic,’After Senkuu chan’s left, everything finally became a done deal, and I was disposed of without any use, naturally. Just like this，break open your mouth, shove it in the muzzle, and, pull the trigger. Bang!!!’  
‘What about the others?’  
‘I don’t know. But since there’s only Senkuu chan and I, they are probably still safe. Maybe they are captured and used as labourers, like they used to be in Tsukasa’s Empire.’  
Senkuu nods, digesting them all quickly.  
‘Never mind that for a moment, let’s get on board.’ Gen takes him by the wrist and leads him to step into the boat.  
Since childhood, he has been too sensitive to ignore the sways during moving by transports. He can often travel by car and by plane, but rarely by boat, because of the intense dizziness. By the moment he steps into the boat, the world begins to shake slightly. He feels like he is just as the cotton in the wind, the petals floating in the water, anyway, a tiny object at the mercy of nature at the moment.  
Gen gestures to the ferryman, who is cloaked in a broad cloak and whose face could not be seen, and the latter one unties the securely tied knot and begins to swing the oars.  
‘Where we are?’  
‘The Styx.’  
‘One of the four rivers in the legend?’  
‘No, just one. One is enough.’ Gen corrects him, then stretches his hand slightly to point to the far shore ahead, where there is light,‘Cross the river, and we’ll reach the Land of the Dead.’  
‘The hell?’  
‘Ah~ Although I did say that I’ll go to the hell with you, unfortunately, it’s not the hell.’  
‘Fine. There seems to be the case.’ He fondles the side of the boat beside him, and what estranges him is, he doesn’t feel dizzy at all. Maybe death is just a thing like this. There is no consciousness after death.  
‘So talk about that place.’  
‘It’s the city of the dead, where we’re going to live. I heard it wasn’t such a pleasant place to live before, but geniuses in all fields die eventually, right? If each of them build the city a little bit further, the technology will be actually not too much worse than that of modern times.’  
The boat keeps moving slowly. The ferryman’s stroke is steady, each dragging out an elegant pattern, as if trying to keep the full moon in the water intact.  
Senkuu once again looks into the distance, the place that is supposedly a city. The river is extremely wide and couldn’t be seen at a glance. If Gen didn’t say so, he may prefer to define it as a sea. At the last time crossing the sea, they were still able to ask for cards at the casino so late at night, and cocktails went down with the lovely sound of chips piling up. Now there is just a river, and there would be no cornfields or new hopes after crossing. This place is always the death itself.  
But then he realizes another thing.  
‘Hey, did you just say that the technology there is not much slower than modern times?’  
‘Uh-huh, what’s wrong?’  
‘Is it THAT Modern?’  
‘It is. The one where there used to have a spotlight shining on me in the recording tent, where Senkuu chan lived a quiet high school life with Yuzuriha chan and Taiju chan, and where also lived Ukyo chan, Ryusui chan, Mianami chan……’  
‘You mean the place was never been petrified?’ Senkuu interrupts abruptly.  
‘I don’t think, Why-man, even if he is powerful, is adequate to interfere in the lives of the deads.’  
‘So the technology of the Land of Dead……’  
‘Bingo~’ Gen smiles like a cat does, ‘So actually for Senkuu chan and me, death isn’t that bad, right? Although it’s fun to live with everyone in the Stone World and try hard to revive human civilization, it would be comfortable to suddenly return to familiar modern day lives without having to do anything tough!’  
‘That’s right……’ Senkuu replies, but there is always something strange, he thinks.  
‘Speaking of which, when we get to the Land of the Dead, what would Senku chan most like to do first?’  
‘You’re just asking what I’d most like to do back in modern times?’  
‘Oh~ it’s all the same.’  
‘……Build my own lab again?’  
‘No way! Are you serious?’  
‘You nagging. That is the most logical solution for me.’  
The boat still moves forward, not too fast, but also like it has always just been in the same place.  
‘You have kept doing so many different experiments in the Stone World, don’t you? Why don’t consider something more special?’  
‘What do you mean?’  
‘Like……watching a movie? Actually it didn’t appear so early in our civilization.’  
‘Wrong. It appeared not that recently. 1895.’  
‘Well, what about……the game centre? This one was invented a little bit later, I guess.’  
‘Indeed, all of a sudden we get the second half of the 20th century.’  
‘Or what about at least going for a ride on the underground?’  
‘No, I say……’ Senkuu suddenly looks his companion straight in the eyes,‘Why do I feel you’re so happy about these?’  
A hint of confusion immediately appears on Gen’s face again,‘What do you mean?’  
‘It’s a post-mortem world anyway, so even if it’s the same as modern times, there must still be differences, right?’  
‘But as it’s all the same, there are also differences between every modern city, huh?’  
‘Nah. You’re missing my point.’  
‘What is Senkuu chan trying to say?’  
He feels that now Senku’s eyes are probably more than just questioning, but instead, they had better to be defined, cold.  
‘You just accept the fact you’re dead so easily?’  
Gen’s face freezes slightly, like the kind of deer you shock with high beams while driving through the woodshed at night, the shock comes up before the fear, and the brain taking in what it can’t comprehend for a moment, begins to overload.  
‘Is Senkuu chan……accusing me?’  
‘No……No, may be.’  
‘Why? Because accepting death so quickly seems to be abnormal? Because defaulting to the possibility of my companions being captured, and already thinking ahead to the playfulness of the Land of the Dead makes me so cold-blooded?’  
‘No, just literally! All in all, why did you accept this death thing so easily?’  
‘Because,’ Gen lifts the sleeve of one hand, pointing to the dark waters,‘aren’t we crossing the River Styx now?’  
Senkuu looks down his fingertips to the water,‘ Must crossing the Styx be death?’  
‘Why do you become so concerned with philosophy?’  
‘Answer me, Gen.’  
‘……You know there is a line between life and death. Since the boat will never turn back, the only way is to travel to the Land of the Dead. It is the only way.’  
Senkuu does not refute the matter. He continues to gaze into Gen’s eyes,‘ Then I’ll ask it in another way.’  
‘Tell me, why did you choose to live when you were stabbed and mortally wounded outside the village of Ishigami?’  
‘Kind of nostalgic, that was truly a long, long time ago,’ Gen regains his smile,‘because Senkuu chan hadn’t handed me the coke yet, and also because, you had been trying so hard to heal me back.’  
‘Then when we decided to cross the Pacific, why did you finally change your mind, to go aboard?’  
‘It’s dangerous to stay in the original place at that time, isn’t it? And I’m trying to stay with you~’  
‘One last question, what were you thinking when you were kidnapped by Dr. Xeno and the others?’  
‘Let’s see……I was supposed to be thinking, I’m so anxious to get back.’  
‘So it’s all clear, isn’t it?’  
‘Eh, what are you referring to?’  
Senkuu frowns deeply and makes that judgment.  
‘You’re not Gen. Who are you?’  
The ‘mentalist’ who was just chatting freely and leading him on board the boat with his own hand is finally willing to be defeated, and for a second, he immediately transforms into a different appearance. The devil does not look like what people always say, red, with long horns and a pointy tail, and an ugly face. It is simply the appearance of a white teenager you could see everywhere, with a wicked sense of innocence, dimples showing when he smiles, savouring his answer with satisfaction.  
‘You finally realize.’  
‘It’s your case, for acting so badly.’ Senkuu scowls. After all these things, when meet someone later, he could boost, that he once met the devil and even dared to mock it.  
‘They said to take you to the other side of the river, I had to pretend to be that man.’  
‘Why?’  
‘Oh my, You even ask me why. Because it’s someone you care about a lot. You guys even said you would go to the hell together didn’t you, and I’m not lying about that.’  
‘And then.’  
‘There’s nothing then, and I don’t know what will happen after this either. My task is just over, to pretend to be that man, wait for you by the river, lead you to the boat, and then, take you to the Land of the Dead. The superiors didn’t tell and also, had no willing to tell me what you would be disposed next.’  
‘How do you know how to pretend to be that person?’  
‘It’s not hard,’ The devil says,‘Just as you humans have archives, so do we. There, everyone’s life path is recorded. I’ll pull up your files advanced, go through them roughly, and try to disguise them almost as if they were.’  
‘No wonder anymore. But how could you think doing these is just enough?’  
‘I have to say, I’ve been the best among all my peers.  
‘It just means that your issue is nothing more than that.’  
‘How poor a man could be talking with you, though I’m a devil.’ The devil complains slightly,‘Anyway, can you tell me how you found out about it?’  
‘You’re showing your true colours everywhere.’  
‘Oh come on, I’m asking for advice seriously! If you’d found out in the first place, you wouldn’t even have been on the boat with me, would you? So, where, exactly did I say the wrong words?’  
Senkuu’s eyes become dimmed.  
‘The very first time was when I found you were overly knowledgeable about the River Styx and the Land of the Dead.’  
‘Maybe I was in too much of a hurry.’  
‘Although I doubted it, I convinced myself that you might had talked to the ferryman before I arrived so as to know so specifically.’  
‘That’s another explanation. Then?’  
‘Then it was, when you mentioned the state of technology in the Land of the Dead.’  
‘And what’s the reason this time?’  
‘It seemed to be so perfect, like a natural trap.’  
‘But you can’t deny that there are always some flawless creations in the world, and it’s kind of lucky to run into them.’  
‘That’s one aspect of it. But the horse’s foot finally showed after you showed unusual excitement about various activities.’  
The devil pauses and asks solemnly,‘And after that, what about when you started to ask for the reactions to those past events?’  
‘Of course you were wholly exposed then.’  
‘Hmmm, maybe my rendition was that critical flaw. But how much of what you just said was hindsight, made up on the spot only after I admitted defeat, and stonewalled my words for performance effect?’  
‘None.’  
Senkuu speaks firmly.  
‘Still haven’t you got it?’  
‘What.’  
‘That guy will never accept death lightly, and that’s why he could recover from his injuries and drink the first bottle of coke in the Stone World; though seemed to be a man so cold-hearted, he really cared about his companions form beginning to end, so he chose to get on board as if he didn’t want to get into trouble; he was always calm and in control of the situation, and he was able to make the most of every advantage to find an opportunity. He was truly a slick talker, but he was also actually more thoughtful than anyone else.’  
Senkuu holds the edge of the boat and stands up from the floating boat.  
‘There’s no way to understand it if you just read the file and did nothing else. He is so complicated a guy that even I could still not figure him out some days.’  
The devil sets in its seat and looks up at his face,‘What do you want to do?’  
‘Go back.’  
‘Back to where?’  
‘Then why bother asking.’ This time, it is his turn to show a smile to the devil,‘The Land of the Living, of course.’  
‘I’ve told you, the boat will never turn back, and you’ll always reach the Land of the Dead.’  
‘Then, unfortunately, I do not intend to cross the River Styx.’  
The devil finally catches him. It quickly got up as well and pounces on him, trying to grab him. But it is too late.  
Ishigami Senkuu jumps out towards the side of the boat, and plunges into the River Styx with determination and resolve.  
The full moon in the water, which was all the while cared for, shattered, leaving behind a fine, pearly white foam, and empty boat that no longer carries a deceased.

Senkuu believes he would experience the feeling of drowning for at least ten seconds. But it doesn’t come. After death one cannot die again, such are the rules of the world. Leaping into the water would be more like that famous movie from before the fall of modern civilization, when drown into the water or forced to fall, you wake up from a dream. Now he has them both. He wakes up from the death.  
The moment he finds himself lying in bed, the pain returns. So concrete, and so real, it is like, he is now being alive.  
He is alive again.  
The only other person in the room besides himself is the young woman sent by the enemy, who is so exhausted after healing him that she is sleeping in her arms at the end of the bed.  
He decides to ring the bell beside him in five minutes. To let the young girl sleep a little longer. To let him himself consider all the things once more.  
After the success of the counterattack that must follow, what should be his response when he meets Gen again after he has actually realized that Gen is someone so important for him?  
Just one thing is certain. Since they are the ones who are going to go to the hell together,  
He would not be able to get off alone, and cross the Styx prematurely.

**Author's Note:**

> *If have any questions, please give me a comment, thx!


End file.
